Travellers

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate his Department has made of the number of unauthorised Traveller sites in (a) each local authority area and (b) England (i) in each of the last five years and (ii) since May 2010.

Andrew Stunell: The "Count of Gypsy and Traveller Caravans" undertaken bi-annually by local authorities in England and collated by my Department collects data on the number of caravans on unauthorised sites in England. It does not provide data on the number of unauthorised sites. Information on the number of caravans on unauthorised sites in England and by local authority area for 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 is available in the Library of the House.
	Figures from the "Count of Gypsy and Traveller Caravans" for the past five years indicate a downward trend on unauthorised caravans.
	
		
			  Number 
			 January  
			 2007 3,797 
			 2008 3,680 
			 2009 841 
			 2010 896 
			 2011 695